Smiling for the camera, Israeli soldier poses with blindfolded Palestinians... and posts the humiliating snaps on Facebook

She claims these photos were only supposed to 'show the experience of military service'.

But former Israeli soldier Eden Abergil was the focus of international outrage last night over pictures showing her smirking as she posed with bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners during her military service.

The pictures, along with other similar ones, were posted online on Abergil's Facebook profile in an album titled: 'Army - the best period of my life'.

He said: 'This shows the mentality of the occupier - to be proud of humiliating Palestinians. The occupation is unjust, immoral and, as these pictures show, corrupting.'

The Israeli military also reacted swiftly, with spokesman Captain Barak Raz branding the pictures 'disgraceful', adding: Aside from matters of information security, we are talking about a serious violation of our morals and our ethical code and should this soldier be serving in active duty today, I would imagine that no doubt she would be court-martialled immediately.'

Last night a defiant Abergil admitted her photos had been 'thoughtless', but insisted she was surprised people had found them offensive.

She also called the army's criticism of her a 'disgrace', saying she 'endangered her life for the country'.

Taunt: Abergil appears to be talking to her prisoner

The photographs have echoes of those taken in 2003 by U.S. soldiers in Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison showing Iraqi detainees being humiliated by their captors.

Some of those soldiers were prosecuted but it was unclear last night whether Abergil would face any repercussions.

While there is no sign of physical abuse as there was in Abu Ghraib, comments on Facebook by the woman and her friend in an exchange below one photo revealed how casually they were treated.

'You're the sexiest like that,' her friend wrote, while Abergil mused of one of the captives: 'I wonder if he's got Facebook. I have to tag [identify] him in the picture.'

Abergil, who lives in the southern Israeli port town of Ashdod, said the photographs were taken in 2008 at her base where Palestinians trying to cross the Gaza border into Israel were sometimes bound with plastic handcuffs and blindfolded-while awaiting questioning.

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Speaking on Israeli radio yesterday, Abergil called her actions 'thoughtless and innocent' but added: 'I still don't understand what wasn't OK.

'I just had my picture taken with someone in the background. When I understood that so many people were hurt by those pictures, I removed them.'

Claiming the photographs were intended 'solely to show the experience of military service', she added: 'I did not humiliate those detainees. I didn't hit them, I didn't act toward them unpleasantly.

'It's completely different than the American soldier some are trying to compare me to. This is something that happens every day in the army, especially at bases like this.'

Israel controls much of the occupied West Bank, captured in a 1967 war, which Palestinians want as part of a future state along with the Gaza Strip, now run by Hamas Islamists.